Call-associated data is frequently used to assist customer agents in call center environments. Examples of call-associated data include customer reference numbers or IDs, customer ordering history, customer credit information, and other details of a customer account.
In a typical scenario where call-associated data is used, a computer server is connected to a private branch exchange (“PBX”) switch. When a telephone call is received by the PBX, the identity of the telephone call is determined through the use of, for example, automatic number identification (“ANI”). A database is then queried by the computer server and the call-associated data for the caller is retrieved. The call-associated data is then displayed at a computer terminal of the responsible customer agent. The customer agent can use the call-associated data to handle the telephone call more efficiently and effectively.
In some instances, a telephone call is made to one type of telephone switch and then transferred to another type. For example, a call can be made to a telephone on a Nortel Meridian 1 PBX switch, and then transferred to a telephone on an Avaya Definity G3 PBX switch. In this scenario, call-associated data may be retrieved for the telephone call to the first switch. However, there is no current known method or system to transfer that call-associated data to the second switch, or have the data available to a customer agent on the second switch. This is a problem because telephone calls are frequently transferred in call center facilities due to overflows or redirections of calls to other call center facilities.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for a method and system to provide call-associated data that is generated on a call to a first type of telephone switch to a telephone connected to a second type of telephone switch.